NEWS FROM AFRICA Report blames pilot error for Tanzania plane crash

Areport of an investigation into the November plane crash in Tanzania says pilots failed to heed warnings from an automatic alarm system.

Nineteen people were killed in the 6 November crash into Lake Victoria, as the plane attempted to land in the lakeside town of Bukoba.

An initial report from the transport ministry painted a damning picture of the emergency services’ preparedness to deal with the disaster prompting anger over the response.

On Thursday, a second preliminary report said a warning system that gave three alerts about “the excessively high descent rate” was “not followed by corrective action by the flight crew”.

The report also noted that the weather condition was bad amid poor visibility, which “may have contributed to the failure to react to terrain warnings during the final approach”.